Cartagena - Colombia

, originally uploaded by m_hagen.

We sadly left Lobitos and hopped on a bus north to Quito where we explored the Colonial sections of the city, checked in with the Equator and finally met up with Christine and Mike. It was great to see those two again. Although Hedda has bumped into them in Barcelona and Brazil, I haven't seen them since we crashed their honeymoon in Thailand almost 1 1/2 years ago. After the best sushi I've had in ages we flew, finally no bus ride, to Cartagena.

I've always wanted to see this legendary city of pirate lore and wasn't dissapointed at all. The walls that surround the Ciudad Viejo have withstood assaults for nearly 500 years. The city is filled with gorgeous original colonial buildings, some lovingly restored while others have slowly deteriorated while awaiting some love. There is a massive effort going on to restore many of the buildings and I have no doubt that in years to come the place will stun many more visitors as it did myself. Great food here. Pizza and beer in the park, mango's from the street vendors, drinks at the Whiskeria, ceviche, our favorite breakfast place, Mila and more.

Lobitos - Northern Peru

, originally uploaded by m_hagen.

Our first morning dawned crisp and clean, groomed by the predominate offshore winds found here. Unreal to wake up and see Ranch surface conditions with half a dozen sand points within walking distance of Darwin´s place. Darrin and I jogged down the beach to La Piscina where we surfed picture perfect head-high lefts with a most polite crowd of 5 others. Everyone taking turns. After one wave Darrin paddled back out laughing, telling me how he´s never surfed a spot where complete strangers called him into waves straight away. Of course not every story has a perfect ending. You should be warned that this place does need a solid swell to get around the corner and when the swell does come up, the local boogie crew can be pretty aggressive. That said it´s still a sweet spot worth coming back to.

Upon arrival, the fishing village of Lobitos looks like a ghost town. The U.S. built a military installation here 50-60 years ago to guard the oil one of our giant Texas corps was here to raid. Some thing´s just never change... Eventually the Peruvian Government decided to reclaim the oil reserves off their coast and booted the U.S. out. Since then the town has fallen into a decrepit mess. The place has a ghost town charm to it with the rusted hulking pier, the abandoned houses and church. Some of the homes look earily like our bungalow back in California. The demolition goes on daily bit by bit, piece by piece. Retired fishermen gather scraps of iron to ride into Talara with for pennies. We found it an interesting place, so we stayed a couple of weeks....

Talara - Lobitos Transport

, originally uploaded by m_hagen.

Darrin has been travelling with Hedda and I the past couple of weeks. I was really stoked to share some of the joys of South American bus travel with him. Our first bus from Lima north to Huanchaco was 12 hours overnight. Darrin was lucky enough to sit across the aisle from a huge guy who snored all night long. This guy rumbled like a horse. Eventually Darrin, one of the most laid back guys I know slammed the guy in the shoulder. He shuddered for a moment and we thought it might have done the trick, but then a moment later the guy was back at it just as loud as before. Not much sleep that night on the bus.

The Econoline in the photo was our link to Talara from l'il ol´ Lobitos. The driver was sometime's able to fit 19 people inside along with 2-3 niño's, a bag of freshly caught fish and some scrap metal. Little cramped, but it was usually smiles all the way around. The drop offs in town were always interesting. Everyone wants to get there 2 soles,(.80 cents) worth so they ask to be dropped off directly in front of their homes. This happens all over the world but here in Lobitos we stopped to let one woman off. The driver turned off the engine since he had to unload some things off the roof. He then started up again and hadn't even gone a car length when another lady yelled from the back to stop. She was in the house next door! This stuff always cracks me up....